2009 J. Lohr Carol’s Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc

Honoring a Legacy
Two years ago, J. Lohr began the Touching Lives program in memory of Carol Waldorf Lohr, late wife of founder Jerry Lohr. In 2008, Carol, who was the muse for Jerry’s Napa Valley vineyard, passed away unexpectedly due to complications related to breast cancer. Since, the Lohr family has been working to curtail the impact of breast cancer in the lives of other families.

Touching Lives, One Toast at a Time
This past year, we set out to provide 500 mammograms for women in need by donating $2 from every bottle sold of our J. Lohr Carol’s Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. With more than 4,000 mammograms funded to date, we have long surpassed our goal! As we partner again with NBCF for the third year in a row, we will continue to expand our efforts to raise money in support of early detection, which has been proven to save lives. Read More.

Cool and mild weather during the 2009 growing season set the stage for optimal Sauvignon Blanc flavor development. Mild conditions during flowering assured a good crop, and the long cool season allowed the grapes to mature to their full potential. To create a complex and delicate Sauvignon Blanc with herbal and exotic fruit flavors we picked the vineyard in two stages. Our first pick was on August 14th at 23.3° Brix, which gave us herbal, boxwood and gooseberry characters. The final harvest came on August 19th at 23.8° Brix, and produced flavors of grapefruit and passion fruit. The juices from each picking date were fermented separately; this allowed us to apply winemaking techniques that maximize the desired characteristics of each pick. For the 2009 vintage, we destemmed, pressed and settled the Sauvignon Blanc in tanks, followed by fermentation in 55-gallon stainless steel barrels. All winemaking was done in a very reductive environment (excluding oxygen) and the resultant blend of both picks is an elegant style of a delicately herbal and citrus-flavored Sauvignon Blanc.

Vineyards

Carol’s Vineyard is a thirty-four acre parcel located in north St. Helena in the Napa Valley, bounded on the east by the Napa River and on the north by Pratt Avenue. Sauvignon Blanc represents 10.88 acres of Carol’s Vineyard and is planted in the eastern portion of the vineyard adjacent to the Napa River where outstanding Sauvignon Blanc has grown. The soils are very loamy and well drained, with a fair amount of gravel. The Clone 1 Sauvignon Blanc is grown on a quadrilateral cordon trellis to control vine vigor, preserving a single leaf layer in the south-exposed fruit zone, providing only dappled sun exposure to the grape clusters, which preserves some of the natural herbaceous fruit character.